Repair and preservation of books



June 8g 1926.

J. w. WARD REPAIR AND PRESERVATION op Booxs Filed MarGh 6, 1925 Patented June 8, 1926.-

JAMES WARD, or ri'r'rsisuiterr, PnNNsYL'vANIaQ "marais man rnnsnRva'rIoN-' or BooK/fs.

lappncationmed March s, 1925. serial No. V13,493.y

` This invention relates to the repair and lpreservation of books and seeks particularly to repair record books'in such a mannerthat the leavesl Will bereenforced-and renewed and may'be handled freelj,T 'Without further deterioration through a long periodvoftime. In 'books which are consulted constantly, such, vfor instance, as public records; the leaves break near the back asa result of the 1.0 frequent folding and, prior vto my invention,

f Figure l is an end view'of a book .pre

Y 'pared for the applicationofguards or fillers; VFigure 2 is a similar-view showing .a 4slightvariation in the arrangement'` of the leaves to be rebound; Y ,A y. Figure 3 is a'perspective vievvA of l leaves to which guards or fillers have been applied;

Figure l is an end view of the repaired book.A i i y In repairing anold book in accordance with the present invention, the cover is, of course, removed. I then cutl off the fold of 30. each signature `sufficiently to remove all paper touched by the oldV glue and produce evenness inthe frail Worn portion caused by the glue. one side, as indicated in Fig. l, a denite number of leaves, say ten, asindicated at l, are then lifted from the top ,of thev book Without further change, and placed upon a convenient rest upper face downward. A second block of ten leaves, 2, is then removed and a strip about one-eighth of an inch Wide is out from the trimmed back edge thereof. This block of leaves is then placed upon the first block so that the leaves Will be in consecutive order, and a third block of leaves is thenremoved and placed uponA the secondV block. A Vfourth block is then removed and trimmed just as the secondy block was trimmed, the vprocess'being repeated until all the leaves vhavefbeen arin Figurey 1.

leaves are arranged in groups of blocks, as

shown in Figure 2, trimmed to threev dierent vvid'ths, the block 3 retainingv its original vvidth minus the slight reduction made in lith fthe book Vlying vuponV ranged in blocks of equal thickness as shown' removing approximately; one-eighthfof an inch, and

thefblock; 5, being reduced .Y approximately.

one-fourtheof an inch.

the-gluethe block l being reduced" there isnow pasted a guard or fillerconsisting of :a strip-of high grade new; linen f paper 6 half the thickness of tlierleafand Which, for most books, Willbe about three vincheswvide. -Thelrfiller strip is secured;V to

the leafin such manner that the overlap -Will be the same asv thefdiifere'nce in'vvidthof adjacent blocks or leaves. Theleavesnd 'attached filler stripsY are then brought into such position `that the'overlapsvvill `all be inthe saine' vertical vplane in superposed l'elation and.y they are placed inthe dryingV press with waxed paper or thelike between the leaves. Left inthe press for al time sufficient to permitthorough drying of the and stripshave been Vfirmly limited-in*l a smooth joint. The iller strips arethen folds paste, when. the'lea'vesl are removed iti Will spective leaves, as indicated at 7 in Figure 3,

trimmed edges in the staggered relation shown 1n Flgi'ire 1 or Figure 2, as the case may be, thereby bringing the alternate groups of overlaps over thev spacesv between Vthe leaves and the free edges of the folded rfillerY strips.

The eXtra thickness caused by the overlap is thus accommodated and the folded fillerjstrip will have thesame thick ness as the'leaf to which it is attached. The leavesY are thus repaired Without .adding to vthe thickness of the book and this is true Whether oneV page or more is taken at each separate Width. The fillers are then trimmed bycutting a'vvay their folded edges so that they Will be even after which they are bound by sewing or otherwise connecting the superposed fillers at their 'rear'edges, as shown in Figure 4;, or they may be secured vin a loose leaf binder. Of course, if a loose leaf binder is to be used it will be-necessary to form openings through the fillers tov receive lthe binder posts or rings, and it'may be necessary to paste or glue together the' plies of eachfiller, atleast for. a'fportion of their Widths. v v

. y A v 60. l @To the trimmed `back edge of each sheet,

flexible carrier for the leaf so that the lsheetV will fold or ybend in the new strip and thus relieve the old frail brittle paper.

Having fully described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure byLetters-Patent, is Y 1. A method of repairing books which includes attaching to each leaf of the book one edge portion of a iilli-ng strip having a thickness one-half that of the leaf, arranging the unions of the leaves and strips in staggered relation, folding the strips toward the respective leaves and spacing the free redges of the strips from the edges of the leaves, yand binding the strips. Y c

2. A method of repairing books which includes attachingto each leaf of the bookv a Vfiller strip having a thickness one-half that of kthe leaf, Varranging the unions of the leaves and strips in staggered relation, folding the strips toward the leaves and spacing the free edges of the strips a distance from the-leaves substantially equal to the width of the union between a leaf and a strip, and binding the strips. l

3. A method of repairing` books which includes trimming the binding edges of the book leaves to remove alll adhering binding` Inateriah then additionally trimming some of the leaves whereby to produce groups `of vleaves with all the leaves in each vgroup uniform in width, securing a filler strip to the binding edge of each leaf with the overlap of the strip equal in width tothe'difference between the widths of the leaves, arranging thefoverlaps in staggered relation, folding Vthe strips toward the leaves with the free edge of the strip spaced from the leaf a distance equal to the width of the overlap, and binding'the strips. Y

4. A book leaf; having a filler strip attached toits rear edge," the strip including a portion which is attached to the leaf and `another portion which lies in the plane `of the leaf against the first-mentioned portion and terminates in spaced relation to the leaf. 5. A book leaf having a folded filler strip attached toits rear edge and overlapping said edge, the thickness Vof the strip being one-half the thickness of the leaf and one edge 'of the strip being free and spaced from the rear edge of the leaf a' distance equal to the width of the overlap'ofthe strip upon the leaf.

6. A bookfhaving leaves of vdifferent widths larranged in groups withlthe leaves in a group ofunifo-rm Width, folded filler strips each attached along one edge 'to the rear edge of a leaf with anV overlap equal in width to the difference in width of the leaves and the'free edge of the strip spaced from the leaf a distance equal to the width of the overlap, and means binding the strips. In testimony whereof, I have signed this specification.

JAMES I/V. IVARD. 

